Word: wild
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...Washington Speculators Face Fresh Scrutiny Federal regulators are weighing whether to impose restrictions on energy speculators, whom some have blamed for triggering the wild fluctuations in crude-oil prices over the past year. From its peak of $145 in July 2008, the price of a barrel of crude plummeted to about $35 in January before rebounding to almost $70 this summer. Some analysts deny that futures-trading has driven the swings, noting that commodity-price volatility is a normal by-product of difficult economic times...
...Until recently, nests were mainly harvested from caves in the wild, and the trade was dominated by a ruthless and well-connected élite. Now, fueled by insatiable demand from prospering China, a regional boom in farming nests in purpose-built birdhouses - "swiftlet condos," as they're sometimes called - is democratizing the business. "It's recession-proof," enthuses Harry Kok, a retired Malaysian engineer who owns or has shares in five birdhouses and writes a blog on the subject from his Kuala Lumpur home. "The overheads are minimal. You don't have a factory with so many workers. Right...
...Even if you build it, they don't always come. Up to two-thirds of birdhouses fail to attract a self-supporting colony of birds, estimates Kok. "We don't really understand them," he says. "They are wild animals. We find that they like to stay in dark areas. But at one hotel in Malacca they are nesting in bright light." Lucky producers can harvest two to four pounds of nests a month, worth up to $500 per pound ($1,100 per kg). Middlemen are buying up all the nests they can source, usually as quietly as possible. "They come...
...some respects, the birdhouse business resembles the trade in nests harvested from the wild, a side of the industry that is murky and sometimes violent; in the past, only those with money, muscle and good political connections prospered. In Thailand, fewer than a dozen companies harvest nests from some 170 islands in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, in return for paying multimillion-dollar concession fees to the government. The remote islands are guarded by dozens of armed men - in effect private armies - and are often run "like independent states," says Jandam, the author of the industry study...
...Given the risks of wild harvests, it's little wonder that the smart money has moved into the more genteel birdhouse business - although here, too, there are complications. Swiftlet condos have become local eyesores. Because nest theft is common, the untreated concrete structures often resemble secret weapons facilities, their roofs adorned with barbed wire and electric fences. Bird droppings are a potential health threat, too, while in some towns, the constant noise from Swiftlet Bazooka Tweeters and other callers has become "unbearable," admits...